Stabilizing steering vane



June 2, 1953 H. E. 'HOLLMANN 2,640,453

STABILIZING STEERING VANE Filed July 27, 1950 ZZZ-".1. E6. 2;.

+P I +P INVENTOR. HANS E. HOLLMAN/V Patented June 2, 1953 Hans E. Hollmann, Camarillo,

, the United. States of A merica the' Secretary of the Navy Califi, assignor to as represented by w App1icationJuly27,1949,SerialNo.107,130 lClaim. (01.114-162) The inventionjdescribed herein may be manufactured and used by or for the Government of the United States of Americagfor governmental purposes without the, p'aymentgof' any. royalties thereon or therefor.

This invention relates to a streamlined control rudder, elevator or any other control surface for aircraft, guided missiles or seagoing craft. The control surfaces, according to this invention, assure a greater stability so that damping can be reduced, or by retaining the customary damping devices, a considerable increase of stability is attained.

It is an object of this invention to provide an improved control rudder which will linearize the steering characteristics of the rudder so that a noticeable and effective steering force occurs even with small angular deflections of the control rudder from a straight course.

Other objects and many of the attendant advantages of this invention will be readily appreciated as the same becomes better understood by reference to the following detailed description when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings wherein:

Fig. 1 is a diagram showing the non-linear steering characteristic of the conventional type rudder;

Fig. 2 is a diagram showing the linearized steering characteristics of the instant invention;

Fig. 3 is a schematic view showing the development of the instant invention; and

Fig. 4 is a schematic plan view of the instant control rudder in combination with a craft.

Generally, the steering stillness or stability of a craft may be defined as its sensitivity to very small angular deflections of its rudder or elevator. Since very small deviations of the rudders or elevators from a straight course cause little or no steering forces, the steering stiffness in the straight course is virtually zero. Only with greater rudder or elevator deflection does a noticeable steering force occur, so that the steering characteristic, namely the steering force P versus the rudder deflection assumes the nonlinear form shown in Fig. 1. It has a turning point at neutral or zero positio This steering characteristic is unimportant as long as the craft is controlled by a human pilot. However. if the human pilot is replaced by an automatic pilot, as in a torpedo or guided missile, the nonlinear steering characteristic becomes a serious problem.

Any torpedo or guided missile basically represents an oscillating system with more or .less

(Granted under Title 35, U. s. Code (1952);

sec.266) v degree of freedom and witha negative. damping due to the unavoidable inertia'of its'jautomatic pilot. Sometimes this negative damping does not become apparent because it is compensated, as, for instance, by the natural positive damping of a torpedo. In a guided missile, however, special precautions must be taken in order to balance the negative damping and the undesirable tendency of self-excitation of steering oscillations. Normally this has been achieved by means of special damping signals corresponding to the first and/ or second derivative of the main control signal, which is delivered by a displacement gyro, by compass, or by radio signals. These damping signals are superimposed upon the out put of the path governor and thus control the servo-mechanism, etc.

It can be proven that the negative damping, because of the inertia of the autopilot, is reciprocally proportional to the steering stiifness. Consequently a steering characteristic as is shown in Fig. 1 leads to a very high negative damping, i. e., to a very strong self-excitation requiring considerable damping devices in order to assure stability. It is clear from this that a more linear steering characteristic will diminish the negative damping because of its greater steering stiffness, with the advantage that the size of the positive damping devices can be diminished, or that the usual damping devices will increase the stability.

According to this invention, the steering characteristic is linearized by adding two unilateral characteristics in push-pull as shown in Figs. 2 and 3. Instead of one control surface, the schematic view Fig. 3 shows two control surfaces II which include the smallangles 1 plus 2. If the characteristics of each of these vanes are plotted versus angular deflection, the two curves [2 (Fig. 2) are obtained, which combine to produce a resultant characteristic shown by the dotted line I3 connecting the curves [2. This resulting characteristic (line 13) passes thru the zero point at a certain slope, i. e., according to this invention the straight course (,=0, in Fig. 2) has an inherent stiffness (corresponding to the slope of line I3) so that at small deviations of from 5:0, an appreciable steering force P immediately results.

The two control surfaces ll of Fig. 3 are combined in practice into a single'vane l4 whose cross section may beshaped as indicated in Fig. 4. This vane is pivoted to the tapered stern l5 of a craft [6 by means of a pivot I 7 at the thin leading edge l8 of the vane I4. The two control surfaces Ha diverge at an angle n continuously sternward from the pivot axis H to a. smoothly rounded trailing surface 19, provided for low fluid-dynamic resistance. It is understood that the angle 50, (the sum of 1 and #12) must not be too great or it will result in an undesirable drag, or braking action. On the otherhand, since the desirable steering characteristic should be as linear as possible throughout the turning range of the rudder, it follows that the angle an must be a compromise between fluid-dynamic resistance and the desired steering stiffness.

It is desirable, according to this invention, that the cross section of the vane [4 at its leading edge l8 should be substantially the same as the cross section at the tip of the tapered stern l5 of the craft l6.

Obviously, many modifications and variations of the present invention are possible in the light of the above teachings. It is, therefore, to be understood that within the scope of the appended claims the invention may be practiced otherwise than as specificaliy described.

What is claimed is:

In combination, a craft having a tapered stern, a rudder having a relatively thin leading edge pivoted to said stern of the craft, a relatively thick arcuate trailing edge, and control planes diverging symmetrically 1min said leading edge and joined by said trailing edge in fixed relation to each other, the angle of divergence of said control planes being substantially equal to the angle of convergence of said tapered stern.

HANS E. HOLLMANN.

References citea in the file of this patent UNrrED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 319,665 Barney June 9, 1885 1,754,511 Podolsky Apr. 15, 1930 2,139,163 Jones Dec. 6, 1938 2,363,335 Katcher et a1. Nov. 21, 1944 2,431,449 Ashkenas ct a1. Nov. 25, 1947 @OEEI'GL'I' PATENTS Number counti s Date 

